Exosomes are small vesicles with diameters of 30 to 200 nm that are secreted from almost all cells that make up the body, and are present in all body fluids such as blood and urine (1)-(5) . They are
also secreted into the culture supernatant of animal cells in vitro . Like cells, exosomes are surrounded by a lipid bilayer membrane, with membrane proteins present on their surface and proteins and microRNAs contained inside. It is thought that exosomes are responsible for intercellular communication through the function of these proteins and microRNAs in target cells that have taken up exosomes (6) . One of the structural characteristics of exosomes is the tetraspanin family present on their surface. CD9, CD63, and CD81 are member molecules of this family and are also surface markers for exosomes (7) .
Methods for quantifying exosomes include the amount of protein contained in exosomes and particle analysis using the nanotracking method (8) , but these methods require exosomes to be purified first by ultracentrifugation or other methods. There are very limited means to directly quantify exosomes in body fluids or cell culture fluids, and no general method has been developed to date.
This kit uses sandwich ELISA with high-performance antibodies against the exosome markers CD9, CD63, or CD81, respectively, to relatively quantify exosomes that have CD9, CD63, or CD81 molecules on their surface.